Issue 27 is a fully functional gingham soccer ball designed by Michelle Grabner.

It is important to note that the issue also functions as a physical rebuttal to Ken Johnson's 2014 New York Times review of Michelle's exhibition at James Cohan Gallery, in which he referred to Michelle's work as that of a boring soccer mom. The comment ignited a firestorm of counter-reviews and letters to the editor. It also inspired this issue, which might be the first rebuttal in the form of a soccer ball...ever.

The issue includes a pamphlet containing a brief introduction, an interview with Michelle Grabner by editor Jonn Herschend, and a reproduction of Joe Fyfe's review of the review in HyperAllergic.

Michelle Grabner (born 1962, Wisconsin) is a visual artist and writer. She is best known for her abstract metalpoint works and her paintings of textile patterns appropriated from everyday domestic fabric. Incorporating writing, curating and teaching with a studio practice grounded in process and productivity she has created a multi-faceted and dynamic career. Grabner and her husband Brad Killam run the artist project space called The Suburban in Oak Park, Illinois, which they developed with friend David Robbins in response to the idea that the suburbs were an overlooked site for avant-garde activities. In 2009 Grabner and Killam founded The Poor Farm, a not-for-profit art space and residency in Rural Northeastern Wisconsin. Grabner received a B.F.A. (painting and drawing) in 1984 and an M.A. in art history in 1987 from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. She received an M.F.A. from Northwestern University in 1990. She is Professor and Chair of the Painting and Drawing Department at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she has been teaching since 1996. She has also taught at The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Yale Norfolk, Milton Avery Graduate School of Arts, Bard College, and The University of Pennsylvania. She is represented by James Cohan Gallery in New York and has exhibited her work internationally, including at the Musée d´art Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg; Stadtgalerie, Keil; Kunsthalle, Bern; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI; The Milwaukee Art Museum; and Ulrich Museum of Art, Kansas. Essays and reviews by Grabner have been published in Artforum, X-tra, Frieze, and Modern Painters. She was a co-curator of the 2014 Whitney Biennial.